China Stamp Fetches Record Price

The American Free Press website reports a stamp that was pulled from circulation the day it was issued because it failed to show Taiwan as part of China fetched a record price at auction in Hong Kong on Sunday.

The rare 1968 stamp was picked up by an unidentified Asian buyer, who paid 3.68 million Hong Kong dollars (475,000 US dollars), a record for a Chinese stamp.

Designer Wang Wei Sheng, who watched the hammer fall, told AFP he had feared he would be punished for his mistake. While China was colored red, Wan had left Taiwan uncoloured, a blunder that sparked a recall of the stamps just half a day after their release.

"For a long time I was really worried that I would be jailed," he said. "Officials told me that it was a really big mistake, but in the end nothing happened."

Taiwan split from China in 1949 at the end of a civil war and has been ruled separately since, but Beijing still considers the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification.

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